Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 1105
About this tablet
A small administrative receipt from the Ur III settlement of Garšana in southern Iraq, dated to the seventh year of King Šu-Suen (about 2030 BCE). It records that a cook named Adallal received a quantity of gazi — a pungent seasoning, probably mustard or a similar plant — from the official Iškur-illat, specifically to prepare preserved fish. The tablet is labelled a 'copy', showing how the estate's bookkeepers kept duplicate records of even minor kitchen supplies.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a receipt. An unknown quantity of gazi seasoning (the number is broken off) was issued to Adallal, the cook, for use in making salted fish. It came out of the stock managed by Iškur-illat. Transaction recorded at Garšana, in the month of the Ninazu festival, in the year Šu-Suen, king of Ur, destroyed the land of Zabšali. This tablet is a duplicate copy of the original record.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[n (units of)] gazi-spice (mustard/cuscuta), for (preparing) salted/pickled fish — Adallal, the cook, [re]ceived (it); [from Iškur]-illat (it was) [ex]pended. In Garšana. Month: Festival of Ninazu. Year: Šu-Suen, king of Ur, destroyed the land of Zabšali. Copy.
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
[n] gazi mu# ku6 al-us2-sa-sze3 a-da-lal3 muhaldim [szu] ba#-an-ti [ki iszkur]-illat#-ta [ba]-zi sza3 gar-sza-an-na iti ezem-nin-a-zu mu szu-suen lugal#-uri5-ma-ke4 [ma]-da# za-ab-sza-li[] mu-hul gaba#-ri
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 1105. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y1 — Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: CUNES 48-06-020 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P322609). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.